This invention relates to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and more particularly to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material capable of producing a dye image which is less in light discoloration and excellent in preservability.
Generally, a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material comprises a support coated thereon with three kinds of silver halide color photographic emulsion layers so selectively sensitized as to have the sensitivity to blue-, green- and red-light, respectively. For example, a color negative type light-sensitive material is generally provided with a blue-sensitive emulsion layer, a green-sensitive emulsion layer and a red-sensitive emulsion layer coated in order from the side to be exposed to light; a bleachable yellow filter layer so interposed between the blue-sensitive emulsion layer and the green-sensitive emulsion layer as to absorb blue-light penetrating the blue-sensitive emulsion layer; the other interlayers interposed between the emulsion layers with the particular purposes, respectively; and a protective layer for the outermost layer of the light-sensitive material. Further, a color print type light-sensitive material is generally provided with a red-sensitive emulsion layer, a green-sensitive emulsion layer and a blue-sensitive emulsion layer coated in order from the side to be exposed to light; interlayers including a UV absorbing layer and others each with the particular purposes similar to those in the color negative type light-sensitive materials; a protective layer; and the like. It has been known that the above-mentioned emulsion layers may also be arranged differently from the above-mentioned layer arrangements, and further that two kinds of light-sensitive emulsion layers each having the light-sensitivity to the respective color-light in the substantially same light-sensitive region may also be used in place of using one each of the respective emulsion layers having a light-sensitive region different from each other. In the above-mentioned silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials, the exposed silver halide grains thereof are developed by making use of such a color developing agent as an aromatic primary amine compound, so that an dye image may be formed through the reaction of the oxidation products produced from the color developing agent with a dye forming coupler. In the above-mentioned process, there normally uses such a cyan coupler as those of a phenol or naphthol type, such a magenta coupler as those of a 5-pyrazolone, pyrazolinobenzimidazole, pyrazolotriazole, indazolone or cyanoacetyl type, and such a yellow coupler as those of an acylacetamide or benzoylmethane type. The above-mentioned dye forming couplers are contained in a light-sensitive color photographic emulsion layer or a developer solution.
It is generally known that a dye image is faded or discolored under various storage conditions. For example, as a color print being displayed in the show window of a photo studio, there causes a discoloration when a dye image is stored with a long time exposure to light. This type of discoloration is called a light discoloration. And, as a color print being stored in an album, there causes a discoloration when being stored in high temperature and humidity conditions for a long time even though it is exposed to light for a relatively short time. This type of discoloration is called a dark discoloration. If such a photographic products having a dye image as the above-mentioned color print is regarded as an image recording material, the preservability of an dye image is to be semipermanent on the photographic product, and it is, therefore, desired and being increasingly demanded year by year that the above-mentioned discoloration may be minimized in any preservation conditions.
With the purpose of improving a light discoloration in particular to meet the above-mentioned demands, there have been the proposals of layer arrangement techniques relating to a photographic layer containing a 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzotriazole type UV absorbing agent and the layers relating thereto, such as proposed in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 209734/1983 and 211147/1983.
However, it has so far been known that the above-given 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl)benzotriazole type UV absorbing agent conventionally shows an extraordinary crystallization property and the stability of the oil-in-water disoersion is very low in stability. As for the techniques for improving the above-mentioned defects, there have been proposed the techniques for mixing UV absorbing agents in Japanese Patent Examined Publication Nos. 5496/1973 and 41572/1973; Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 85425/1978 and 215378/1984; and the like, for example.
The above-mentioned techniques are effective in improving th crystallization property at any rate, however, they are still not fully satisfactory, because they are less effective against coalescence and flocculation of the dispersion on standing.
In contrast with the above, International Patent Publication No. 81-01473, European Patent Publication No. 57,160 and the like disclose such a UV absorbing agent as is liquid at an ordinary temperature. This type of UV absorbing agents are satisfactory in crystallization property, however, they have some defects such as that they are apt to suffer a loss in complicated manufacture, that the lotted components thereof may not be uniformed because of the hard refining, and that they are increased in cost.
Journal of Technical Disclosure No. 85-800 describes a technique for mixing a solid UV absorbing agent with a liquid UV absorbing agent at room temperature. From the results of our investigation thereof, it was found that the dispersed solution thereof was improved in stability. However, when this technique was applied to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material having silver halide emulsion layers respectively containing a yellow coupler, a magenta coupler and a cyan coupler, this technique displayed a defect that the color balance of a dye image formed in the light-sensitive material was sharply shifted in light discoloration and especially in the latter part of the discoloration.